We live in a time when creativity takes on many different forms, and it manifests itself in the most unexpected ways, creating startlingly strange trends in the process.
One such trend is the NPC Livestream Trend where every time creators are given a “gift” through the TikTok platform, they will stop whatever they’re doing to say a certain phrase as if they were an NPC character in a video game.
NPC comes from Non-Playable Character and refers to the characters you meet in video games.
Whatever your opinion, the trend is extremely profitable and everyone wants a piece of the pie!
For TikTok creator PinkyDoll, this has proven to be an extremely profitable trend. During her live streams, if you buy her an ice cream, she will say ‘Ice cream so good’. If you buy her a cowboy hat, she’ll say ‘Yeehaw, yes’. It sounds strange, banal and bordering on unprecedented idiocy, but, it can be extremely fascinating to watch her being given ice cream after ice cream, and listening to the one-liner: Ice cream so good, Ice cream so good, Ice cream so good.
Not everyone could do this well and a lot depends on the technique, performance, but also the appearance of the creator. When these three conditions are fulfilled, then viewers are given some power to control their favorite creator… for a price!
Some might see this as a pathetic, shameless and belittling attempt at “here’s banana monkey, now dance for us”, but others might say it’s a much deeper relationship where you empower the creator and encourage further content creation. As a thank you, the creator says a pre-programmed line, depending on your gift. However, the trend is getting out of control, and money is literally falling from the sky.
How much money can you make from the NPC Livestream trend?
A lot! We mentioned earlier that one of the gifts you can buy is ice cream. If you want to buy PinkyDoll a digital ice cream just so you could hear the phrase Ice cream so good, you need to pay $1.30. Portion of the money goes to TikTok, but the rest is given to the creator. Last month, PinkyDoll creator told the New York Times that she was making $2,000 to $3,000 from just one live stream. Or $7000 a day!
It seems everyone wants to take advantage of this lucrative trend. So, in July alone, creators used the #NPC hashtag in nearly 50,000 videos. Those videos were watched 835 million times.
Nicki Minaj isn’t sitting idly by, either. Just the other day, she decided to turn a profit by exploring the same avenue. So, on 13 August, she sat down, started a live stream, and began reacting with NPC phrases while being showered with digital gifts in the form of hats, hearts, microphones and roses. She could barely manage to accommodate everyone and repeat the same phrases over and over again. Nicki Minaj is neither the first nor the last celebrity to embrace this trend with open arms, and she’s actually coming a tad late to the party, joining other rappers like Lil Pump.
We live in a time when creativity takes on many different dimensions and manifests itself in the most unexpected ways, creating startlingly strange trends in the process. It seems that social networks are a gold mine that keeps on giving, regardless of the contents.
How does this trend look to you? Interesting? Or another example of humanity reaching a new low? Tell us in the comments!
